Ex-Plan Holder Gets Right To Sue Under ERISA

Law360, New York (August 16, 2007, 12:00 AM EDT) -- A former employee's putative class action against American Electric Power Company Inc. for violating the Employee Retirement Income Savings Act of 1974 may go forward even though he has since cashed out of the AEP retirement plan, an appellate court ruled Wednesday.

With its decision, the three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit overturned a district court's denial of plaintiff Kermit D. Bridges's motion for class certification. Bridges is suing AEP for violating ERISA in its management of a retirement plan...